Navigating Night

by Julie Leung

A girl guides her dad on his route delivering Chinese take-out food in this touching picture book, written by an APALA-award winner, that celebrates the unique bond between immigrant parents and their children.

Every night, a girl must help her dad, whose English is not as good as hers, make deliveries for their small family restaurant. Sitting next to him in the car, she studies a map and gives him directions in Cantonese. She helps him get to the places he needs to go.

She hates doing this, though. Hates carrying grease-stained boxes of Mongolian beef and moo goo gai pan to customers' doors. Hates being different from the kids behind these doors. Why can't her family be normal like everyone else’s?

But when her dad tells her about how he immigrated, all alone as a teenager, to the United States, she comes to better understand him, and appreciate how he has made her American life possible.

Genres: Picture Books

Audible Audio

Expected publication March 10, 2026

About the author

JULIE LEUNG is an award-winning author of numerous children’s books. Her picture book, The Truth About Dragons is a Caldecott Honor and winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. By day, she works in book publishing. She was raised in the sleepy suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, though it may be more accurate to say she grew up in Oz and came of age in Middle-earth.